'Survivor: Cagayan' recap: 'Sitting in My Spy Shack'

Sitting in My Spy Shack

Michael Yarish /

Tony Vlachos/CBS

Tony Vlachos/CBS (Michael Yarish /)

By Beth AaltonenFor The Baltimore Sun

It’s Night 25 and things have pretty much gone all to hell at Solarrion.

Tony admits that he flipped on LJ, and the rest of his alliance wants to know why. Trish isn’t mad, because it wasn’t her this time. Why do these people keep trusting him? Haven’t they learned that he will vote anyone out? Hopefully tonight is the night the rest of them figure that out.

Morning of Day 25, and Tony is running around like a crazy person (go figure) and making himself a spy shack. Sigh. He’s insane, but he’s totally right, because he totally spies on Jefra and Trish talking about him. Jefra admits that she doesn’t trust him (as she shouldn’t), but Tony can’t understand why.

Reward Challenge time! Two teams will race out to the water and collect paddles, which have letters on them that will make out a phrase. Trish, Tony, Woo and Kass are on one team, Tasha, Jefra, Spencer and Jeremiah on the other.

The teams are running pretty even, with Tony’s team slightly in the lead, until he screws up and drops his paddle; his team can’t move on until he gets back in the boat. But then the other team paddles past their box, so it’s pretty-much even going into the phrase part of the challenge.

Kass thinks the phrase is “worth fighting for,” but it’s “worth playing for.” Tasha, Jefra, Spencer and Jeremiah win the challenge. Tony is freaking out, since Jefra is going on the reward with exactly the right people if she wants to jump ship on her alliance (and go after Tony, which would be awesome.)

But this also gives Tony a chance to work on Kass, Woo and Trish, who are really the core of his alliance. Kass realizes that Tony may have made a mistake by targeting LJ, but she doesn’t care as long as she continues in the game. Trish doesn’t feel like talking strategy with Tony, and I get the feeling that Tony wants to talk strategy all the time.

Woo climbs up a crazy high tree to get papayas and falls out. He seems OK, but may have bruised his tailbone. He thinks it was worth it for the papaya. Wow, that certainly wasn’t the emergency they wanted us to think it was in last week’s previews.

Tasha, Spencer, Jeremiah and Jefra arrive at the reward and pretend to ooh and ahh, but we all know that it’s really all about the food. It’s also a great time for the other three to talk to Jefra about changing sides and getting rid of Tony. She’s all for that, but as she says, she needs another rib before she can think about it. Good woman.

The strategizing is totally derailed after they get letters from home. But in Jefra’s letter, she flat out tells her daughter to not let her niceness get in the way of winning. Jefra takes this as a sign that she needs to jump ship and side with Spencer, Tasha and Jeremiah. Go Jefra! Hope it works out for you.

Immunity Challenge time! Today’s challenge is another balance challenge, standing on a narrow incline beam (that gets narrower) while balancing a ball on a pole. The wind is further complicating things.

Jefra is the first one out, followed closely by Trish and Tony. Kass is next, leaving Jeremiah, Spencer, Woo and Tasha. After 10 minutes, the four that remain move down to the narrower part of the beam. Jeremiah is the only one out on the second round.

Now they move down to the narrowest part of the beam, where they have to hold the pole at the lowest part. Woo falls, and it comes down to either Tasha or Spencer. Both are wobbling, but it’s Spencer who falls first. Tasha wins Immunity for the second week in a row.

Back at camp, Tasha is sure that she wants Tony gone, but knows it could come down to a tie or drawing rocks. Tony is going mad looking for an Idol, any Idol, because he knows he’s on the block. Trish, Jefra and Kass talk, and Jefra admits that she wants Tony gone

Tony is digging around a tree like mad, and he finds the special Idol. And it’s a special Immunity Idol that can be used after the votes are read. Whoops. So much for getting rid of Tony this week.

Tony and Trish talk Jefra into coming back into the fold. Against her better judgment, she decides to trust Tony. Given the special Immunity Idol, it’s the best move for her, whether she knows it or not.

According to Woo, they should get rid of Spencer this week, since Tasha has Immunity. And Jefra, who is too sweet for this game, goes to Jeremiah and tells him that she won’t be voting with them. Which makes the little alliance decide to target Woo instead of Tony. I have no idea who is even on the block tonight.

Tribal Council time! Spencer calls out Tony on his lying. Tony does not like being called a liar, but he really doesn’t like Spencer saying that whoever is at the end with Tony, Spencer is voting Tony off, because he’s running the game. Trish thinks that because they ‘talked to him,’ Tony will stop his shenanigans. Ha.

Tony has to allude to his "bag of tricks" -- his Idol -- but Spencer doesn’t believe it; Spencer thinks he has the only Idol. Voting time, and we see Spencer vote for Woo, but that’s it. Jeff asks if anyone wants to play an Immunity Idol, and Spencer does. Tony then tries to play that his idol was fake. Whatever, Tony.

Back from Tribal Council, Tony is feeling secure, so he’s spouting off about people being “worthy” and being “allowed” to stay there. He keeps asking Spencer why it’s a compliment that everybody voted for him, and why he’s being targeted. Because...

Back from Tribal Council, Spencer is trying to hold it together, but he’s basically seen all his plans and schemes go down in flames because Kass couldn’t stand Sarah. Spencer can’t listen to her talk about strategy, because she’s playing with her emotions and...

Back from the Tribal Council where they got rid of Alexis, Spencer thinks that Aparri is strong, and that everyone will stick with the new tribe. Well, the former Brain tribe members don’t have anyone else, but I don’t know about Sarah, Jeremiah and Morgan (well, Morgan...

Back at Solana after Tribal Council, Linsdey is losing her mind because they voted Cliff off. She decides to go off on Trish, telling her exactly what she thinks of her, and that she (Lindsay) doesn’t want to be on her team. Way to piss off the person with the majority alliance,...

In a culture where we whip ourselves into instant media frenzies and then move on forgetting only days later what it was that so upset us, maybe Trevor Noah’s tweets won’t be such a big deal by the weekend.